The Magnificence of Ice
by Fallen Angel Of The Forgotten
Summary: Tsuna's number is up. Mukuro intervenes.


**Summary: **Tsuna's number is up. Mukuro intervenes.

The Magnificence of Ice

It was finally happening.

After eleven years, four months, six weeks, twenty-two days, seventeen hours, fourteen minutes and sixty seconds, the inevitable had finally occurred.

Sawada Tsunayoshi was fixing to die. And his Guardians, scattered around him and fighting like their lives depended on it, could only watch, horrified and enraged, as the fireball that was to be their beloved boss's demise split into two and came hurtling down with all the force of a tornado.

Mukuro had his hands full as well, but he still found room to twist his head around slightly and watch the fireball get closer and closer to the boy he had called his boss for all this time. The boy who, up until now, had been so _very _brave and so _certain _of himself. The same boy that had freed him from Vindice's cold grasp and made it so that he and his little family were happy and safe.

The same boy he'd sworn to take over one day, and use to destroy the mafia.

It was a shame really, some part of Mukuro lamented as he slashed his opponents down, that the boy would be killed in such a revolting manner. It was also horribly ironic – the boy who had wielded fire like a sword would now be cut down by the very weapon he himself had made. It was his own fault for getting cocky, and thinking that the other side wouldn't have an illusionist powerful enough to turn the fireball around and aim it back at the one who spat it out.

It was his entire fault. Really.

So if that was the case, it didn't mean anything when the feeling of _hot _and _tense _in his chest, somewhere around his heart, fluctuated and seemed to grow at the sight of Tsunayoshi relaxing, accepting his incoming fate.

It shouldn't mean anything that hearing the screams of his fellow Guardians made him want to rip his ears off and cram them down the opposing boss's throat.

It certainly didn't mean anything that Mukuro found himself getting irrationally angry suddenly; almost as angry as he got whenever someone hurt Chrome, and cut down in opponents in no time at all.

And it really, _truly _didn't mean anything when Mukuro threw his trident at the now-relaxed boy, smirking when it pierced his back. Tsuna gasped, arching back; the Guardians all turned to look at Mukuro, rage in every one of their features, and Mukuro slipped into his new body.

He could have utterly destroyed the boy's mind and left the corpse for himself. He didn't. Instead, he reached out for Tsunayoshi's mind and entwined it with his own, much like he had done with Chrome, and used his powers to boost Tsunayoshi's own. Then he pushed to the forefront, and let the Mist cover the Sky.

About four seconds after the fireball hit the earth and the body of Tsunayoshi hit the dust about fifty feet away, Mukuro felt the slicing agony of a sword in his shoulder. He grinned and bore it, only because the people had every right to be mad at him; he had done the one thing they had been fearful of for so long. They didn't know what he had done; all they knew was that Mukuro had possessed their boss's body without his consent.

"You bastard." Hayato hissed, drawing his bow back and aiming a Storm arrow point-blank at his heart. "You _bastard._"

Mukuro laughed, because really what could he say? _Hey I just saved your boss's life, spare me please? _Yeah right, he thought. They would believe it when pigs flew.

As it turned out, flying pigs weren't needed after all.

"Gokudera! Stop!" Tsunayoshi, back in his body and safe, if not a bit crispy around the edges, rushed forward and blocked the Storm Guardian's arrow with his arm. "I'm fine! Mukuro didn't do anything! He just – just…"

_Just saved my life._

Tsuna looked down at him, and Mukuro felt another chip of something inside him fall away. It was the same thing that had broken down when Tsunayoshi had released him from Vindice, when he had stayed up night after night by Mukuro's bedside as well as the bedsides of his family, taking care of each and every one of them without wanting anything in return. It had also broken down that evening when he had been rehabilitated and taken a walk with Tsunayoshi down by the river, where they had watched the sun set and spoken of simple things – no mafia involved. And when Chrome had fallen ill, and Tsuna had flown three days without stopping to get her a cure because Shamal hadn't answered any of the calls they had made.

He had done those things, and whenever Mukuro had asked him why, Tsuna had answered with, "Because that's what Family does."

Mukuro, honest to god, had never understood it. Until now. _Now _he felt something warm and fuzzy inside of him, and he recognized it for what it was. Sawada Tsunayoshi, the boy he had sworn to destroy, had finally broken through the ice wall around his heart, and now there was no longer anything protecting him from the utterly corruptible kindness that embodied the boy so completely.

"Mukuro… why did you save me?" The words were spoken hesitantly, and for once instant Mukuro saw him not as a boss, but a scared fourteen year old boy who just wanted his friends to be safe. And he saw the quiet, thoughtful looks resting on him, given by the rest of the Guardians, and he chuckled.

"Because Tsunayoshi, that's what Family does."


End file.
